When TNA launched the company itself was trying to establish its main event roster. They had to go in and take who was there as well as use some unsigned talent that wasn't signed to the WWF then. The 1st TNA PPV had this roster of talents.
Ken Shamrock
Scott Hall
Steve Corino
Malice (the Wall)
Buff Bagwell
Rick Steiner
Gangrel (Vampire Warrior)
Devon Storm
Chris Harris
Ron Killens
Now of that list Scott Hall and Buff Bagwell were not dependable guys you put a title on. Not a NWA World title and the NWA itself pushed for who would become champion then. Malice would actually be the top heel to start TNA off awhile with Jarrett trying and failing (he got beat up by the Tennessee Titans football team in front row once comically after starting a fight). You could make a possible push that the NWA could have pushed for Corino to be World Champion but he took had the same issue Raven had (to a bigger extent then as he never had worked in WWF or WCW before this).
That 1st few months Ken Shamrock was World Champion and it seemed he was gonna be a long term face champion. Yet months in he came to the Jarrett's and told them he had an offer to do MMA and wanted to fight Ortiz. So that cut short his run and they had to scramble for a face champion and gave it to Ron Killens.
Who really wasn't much better and the one creating the most "note worthy stuff" without being champion and getting beat up by a football team and country music singer (Toby Keith) was Jarrett. So finally that fall/winter he became champion.
Now a big issue came in as he did a face turn was ...there was no big heels for Jeff to work against. Malice had been let go and they needed someone. So they had Vince Russo do the best early storyline and it was the S.E.X storyline (Sports Entertainment Xtreme) stable where he could help the "kid" they really wanted to push at some point. It was AJ Styles who needed a good mic worker to help him. (AJ admitted he struggled for years on the mic and it was Flair who helped him the most). AJ had been pushed as a big part of X-Division and they had him get a brief run.
But a big issue even after getting Raven come in was from 2002-2005 the company didn't have a lot of big heels or faces really to put the belt on. And as well as the fact NWA itself wanted Jarrett to carry that title to do title defenses outside TNA so he had to do it. This went on as we saw til 2006 once the company brought in more stars and they finally was able to cut the cord to the NWA to not listen to them.